| |
Review |
| |
|
| |
Ultimatium was birthed out the deep forests of Suomussalmi, Finland. “Virtuality” is the first theme album from Finnish powermetallers who took a big and long overdue step towards prog-power on this album. Album features five lead singers from Finnish metal scene: Johanna Lesonen a.k.a Emily Leone (Lost in Grey, Dotma),
Peter James Goodman (Conquest, ex-Virtuocity), Jukka Nummi (ex-Myon, Angry Machines plays Dio + dozen of Rainbow/Deep Purple-cover bands), Matti Auerkallio (Katra, Manzana, SoulFallen + many more), Tomi Viiltola (ex-Dreamtale, Perpetual Rage, Viilto).
The premise behind "Virtuality" is an introduction of a storyline of four gamers getting stuck in a virtual reality game in a near-future setting. Each vocalist guest has their own, distinctive role in the story and drummer Matti Auerkallio sings the role of the villain (clean & crunch).
The story album is backed up with lots of background vocals, sound effects and a "narrator"/system voice synthesized with Amazon's Alexa.
The album introduces the best parts of power and progressive metal combined, including easier up-tempo songs, but also long, progressive mid-tempo tracks. The songs take influence from such bands as Stratovarius, Dream Theater, Symphony X and Rainbow. Especially on tracks "Digital Tower" and "Ghost of Yesterday" where influences from Ronnie James Dio and Ritchie Blackmore are easily heard.
|
| |
|
|
